I’m that type of guy that always cheers for the villain. I’ve dreamed of playing a game from the villain’s perspective, slaughtering innocent lives, and decimating the face of the planet. That’s why I particularly loved the twist in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, setting Alucard in stone as one of my favorites pseudo-villains. Then there’s Sephiroth – pure one-winged badass, leaving a trail of fire and death in his wake. But ultimately, it was another PSOne-era villain that stole my heart… and could read my memory card and vibrate my controller across the table. I got chills the first time I encountered Psycho Mantis, and no villain has ever come close since to making me feel that magic.

With stellar writing comes some pretty stellar villains. The Joker in the Arkham games really stands out to me (I like that version of the Joker the best). Vaas from Far Cry 3 is a terrifying and well portrayed villain because he is quite simply just evil, in the crazy, calculated, and intelligent sort of way. “Some people just want to watch the world burn” is the perfect quote that personifies who my favorite villains are in games (as well as movies and TV). On that note, I think we are getting a lot more anti-heroes in which the villain is actually within the player character themselves, which is particularly intriguing.

I would have to say Donkey Kong from Donkey Kong, his mental prowess to take the high ground and use his brute strength to toss an infinite amount of barrels at you, showed that he was the perfect combination of muscle and intellect.

Bowser from Mario because he reminds me of myself. He’s this big, ugly dude who relentlessly pursues the same woman, kidnapping her over and over and over again. He will not settle, will not stop. It’s basically how I ended up with my wife. Keep at it, King Koopa! You’ll get ‘er some day!

After writing this I’ll probably think of a much better pick, but off the top of my head it has to be Seymour from Final Fantasy X (likely because I want the HD Remaster so badly!). I’m probably spoiling too much for people who haven’t played the game yet, but having him come back four or five times for some of the most memorable battles in the entire game (that one on the cliff is hard if you don’t know what to do) cements him as my favorite villain as of typing this up.

Nathan Drake – a money driven, thrill seeking mass murderer, who happily makes lame jokes as someone plunges to their death, and is far more concerned about getting laid than others’ well being. This devilishly handsome bastard will always have a place in my heart because I like bad boys.

Who is your favorite villain in video games? Let us know in the comments below.